Such is Love
by ThatisneverThat
Summary: Grace's life continues with Hannah and Jo... but they have their own ideas for it. Sequel to Such is Life, for those of you who haven't read that, find it through my profile. Little bit of Jisbon creeping in too now!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I'm back! As promised, here is the first chapter of the sequel to my Mentalist story 'Such is Life'. Hope you enjoy! For those of you that haven't read 'Such is Life', you can find it through my profile :) **

**I may be an adult now, but still do not own the mentalist - sadly that's one of the few things I still can't do.**

_AN: This is slightly less realistic as it's set about 3 years after Such is Life, and therefore in the future of the programme. Also, some of the details from season 4 I may not include for reasons of the story. However, I hope you enjoy this sequel! By the way, Joe is now 8 and Hannah 5, nearly 6. _

Grace handed Hannah a pancake, the breakfast choice of the day. "I'm just going to hurry your brother along sweetheart, you get eating up." Running upstairs she opened Joe's door to check on him, and found him filling his school bag with the many things he needed that day. "Come on you, not got much time before we have to leave. Don't want you to be late for school do we? And Lisbon will stick me in the naughty corner if I'm not on time." She grinned and helped him do up his rucksack before going back down and getting his breakfast.  
>"You have a naughty corner?" Joe questioned. Grace rolled her eyes at his question and chuckled slightly.<br>"Yeh we do, guess who's in it lots?" Hannah perked up at that point and replied with 'Wayneeee' with a giggle following. "Too right, he's always being naughty." Grace let herself eat as she tidied up the kitchen from cooking and the plates as both children finished. "Right, go get your shoes and coats on and I'll be out any minute." She finished up quickly. Somehow the morning rush was quite fun most of the time, and it helped when both Hannah and Joe cooperated with her.

Once she'd sorted the kitchen she headed out to the hall and slipped her boots on. Grace chuckled as she saw Hannah trying to get her right arm in to her jacket and so helped her. She grabbed both their bags and nudged them out of the door.  
>"Come on you two, in to the car." She smiled as they went outside. She saw the ground covered in leaves as it was autumn time and couldn't resist kicking a few as they reached the jeep and got in. The fresh air was such a joy and life in general was going rather well. "Right, off we go!" She smiled and started the car.<p>

"We hereeee!" Hannah announced as they arrived outside the school. Grace smiled, Hannah was loving Kindergarten already which was a complete relief, she'd imagined having to go and collect her a lot given how clingy she had been since Megan died.  
>"Yes sweetheart, we're here." Both children jumped out of the car excitedly and Joe ran off in to school, shouting goodbye as he went. She took Hannah in to Kindergarten and let her run off with her friends too. Grace headed back to the car with a smile on her face, despite everything having Hannah and Joe had changed her life for the better, she loved having them around and every day was different – not just at work as it had been.<p>

Grace dumped her stuff by the desk and went off to make a coffee, giving Lisbon a quick hello smile as she was on the phone, and everyone else seemed to have disappeared, or was late, either was plausible. Flicking the kettle on, she leant against the side, finally relaxing for the first time since waking up that morning. She let her eyes close for a moment or two, but when she opened them found Rigsby standing in front of her.  
>"Oh geez! You have got to stop doing that to me!" Grace groaned and whacked him gently on the arm before checking the kettle.<br>"Well you should stop having the same routine all morning, and then you'd be less predictable." Wayne grinned and grabbed the kettle before she managed to, making the coffee himself just the way she liked it. Grace just let him this time; fighting over the kettle had proved a problem when she chucked hot water over him by accident and therefore that was one argument she often let him win. However most others she didn't let go.  
>"I'm so not predictable, we all start work at the same time Wayne, that rarely changes… well unless someone dies at an awkward time, then you get called out whilst I get to sleep in" she grinned, another advantage of having the kids. She knew from the look on his face that he had no decent response to that.<br>"Well… you… you get called out some times!" He said weakly, and handed her the coffee, looking disgruntled. "You're too clever." He finished up and went back through to the bull pen, followed by Grace. All of a sudden everyone was there, including Lisbon who had finished on the phone and was huddling them all round.  
>"Nice of you two to join us?" She announced, rather unimpressed. Both Grace and Wayne gestured to the coffee cups and sat down sheepishly, ignoring Jane's glances.<br>"Finally… right. I was just on the phone with Oakland PD. Apparently they want us on standby. A 7 year old boy went missing during the night, his mum and step-dad reporting him missing this morning and are both understandably quite shocked. They're searching for him as we speak but, well, it's unlikely he just walked out by himself. And before you ask, they want us because it's the sheriff's son and the sheriff is nowhere to be seen." Grace glanced up to Jane and could see his cogs whirring away already, she grinned slightly, but not for long after a glare from Lisbon.  
>"So that makes the sheriff a suspect? Or just taken with the boy…" She said helpfully, figuring someone had to say something. Lisbon nodded, giving a verbal agreement also. "The poor mum…" Grace sighed, looking down at her coffee. She felt Rigsby place a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off. "I'm fine." She told him and stood up, leaving the table and heading outside. Wayne stood up to go after her, but was stopped by Cho.<br>"Leave her man…" he said, nodding towards the coffee on the table. Rigsby knew he was right, but they'd been close recently, she rarely walked away anymore. Everyone else seemed so relaxed about the situation, but he couldn't help but think how this might affect her, he'd seen her low before, it had taken a long time to get her back to the Grace he knew, this wasn't what she needed.

**Let me know what you think please :) Thanks all for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey again :) So sorry this has been such a slow update! I'll try and be a lot quicker with the next one I promise! Enjoy chapter 2. **

**Mentalist not mine, nor any of the characters etc...**

Grace came back up about a half hour later looking perfectly normal, complete with smile on her face.  
>"Cheer up Rigs, the wind will change if you're not careful." Even Cho chuckled at that one, Grace was quite proud of herself. "Seriously, why the face? I only needed some air. Look, see, fine now, happy Gracey!" she grinned widely before chuckling at his confusion and sitting down at her computer, checking for any new messages, warnings or general other work things. When she found nothing she clicked on to her desktop and smiled at the background picture. It had been taken the previous summer when Wayne had surprised them with a trip to the beach for her birthday; the picture was the four of them lying on the sand together, Jo was sat on Rigsby's back and Hannah on Grace's, and both the adults looked slightly uncomfortable – but they were all laughing. Her eyes moved over to Wayne subconsciously, and she smiled at him writing away, or more likely doodling. Ever since she'd got the kids he'd been there for her, they'd become the best friends she'd always wanted to be and everything was pretty much perfect, she loved her life.<p>

"We're up." Lisbon announced walking out from her office. By her face they could all tell the boy had been found so they all complied willingly.  
>"You want me to stay back…?" Grace asked, almost hoping Lisbon would agree.<br>"No I want you with me on this one, Cho?" The agent nodded and returned to his desk. Grace sighed, she didn't want to be on this one, she really didn't. As they walked out to the car Lisbon informed Rigsby and Grace to go separately and so they got in to Grace's car. She paused a moment at the wheel and allowed herself to pull things together, knowing she'd have to work through this and not let it affect her.  
>"Hey, you okay? You don't usually ask to stay back…" Rigsby looked at her, concern showing in his face. "Want me to drive?" He added.<br>"No… no I'm fine. Honest, just the idea of it all is a bit upsetting." Grace started the jeep up and started off to the scene.

The air felt colder when they got out of the car. They'd arrived at a lake, which normally would look like a lovely place to be. There were trees surrounding it, and tall plants which all added to the natural beauty of the area, but today it had lost the beauty, lost the fresh air and everything was replaced by a hanging sense of dread over the whole situation. Grace pulled up behind Lisbon and got out, walking over to the edge of the lake.  
>"Mr Kali over there found him on a walk, pulled him out. We can be 99% sure this is Joseph Galey, 7 years old. Fairly certain he has been drowned, however there are other injuries so we need to have cause of death confirmed." Lisbon filled Grace and Wayne in as they'd arrived a couple of minutes later than her and Jane. "Jane seems certain we need to wander round the lake for something, so… you want to get on that?" She asked, Rigsby answered her but Grace was still staring at the boy. She couldn't help but picture how scared he must have been, and she couldn't help but feel horribly angry at whoever had done this. The maternal instinct in her began to feel so much for the mother, how she was going to feel when Lisbon broke the news to her… her thoughts were interrupted by a nudge from Rigsby.<br>"Come on, let's go wander round the lake… get you away from here." He pointed her in the right direction and they wandered off.  
>"I don't get why this is affecting me, I always try so hard not to… right. We're looking for things, back to working self, and ignoring the temptation to push you in the lake…" she grinned slightly, pushing him teasingly towards the edge as they got out of Lisbon's sight.<p>

"Wayne, over here…" Grace spotted a bloody stone by the side of the lake about half way round. She grabbed some gloves and picked it up, placing it in an evidence bag that Rigsby held out for her. "Poor kid…" she took the bag from him and slipped it in her pocket, carrying on walking.  
>"Graaaace?" She turned round, lifting her eyebrows with confusion at what he was doing. He appeared to be climbing up one of the trees… in his suit.<br>"Dare I even ask?" she chuckled as he kept going up.  
>"Do I need a reason? We got time, and the trees seemed inviting…" He replied, continuing to rise up the tree. Grace came to the conclusion this looked like fun and jogged over to join him. "Ohhh you comin' after me? Call it a rematch for the race round the garden shall we?" Recently they'd become accustomed to getting up to little tricks whilst out together, it definitely made work more amusing and reminded them both of how great it was to be friends again, and somehow Lisbon never found out.<br>"Oh yeh, and how did that work out? You lost by miles!" Grace chuckled and carried on climbing after him. Eventually they found themselves sat on a branch looking over the lake. "Okay, so you beat me… this time. But you had a massive head start, and it's hard to overtake on a tree!" she chuckled, sitting beside him.  
>"Yeh well you always get the kids to stall me, therefore I deserve to win for once." He chuckled, sticking his tongue out at her.<br>"Oh look at us, we're so immature… and it is so much fun," Grace looked out over the lake. "Right… race back down!" she grinned and started to slide down the tree as quick as she could.

"Beat you beat you!" she shouted as she reached the bottom of the tree, followed shortly by Wayne. He looked rather disgruntled at her and started to run at her, grinning. "Heyyyy don't you be chasing me!" she shouted and started to run off, vaguely looking for evidence as they kept going. She noticed a little cut in the trees and ran through, closer the lake edge. "You can't catch mee!" she grinned, hiding behind a tree.

"Grace? Oh where on earth are you hiding…" Rigsby kept running towards the lake. "Graceee?" he called out before stopping, just beside the tree she was hidden behind. Grace tried not to chuckle to much, watching him wander about slightly looking for her, and yet somehow still missing her. She took a moment to consider her options before moving round the tree slowly and carefully…  
>"BOO!" she jumped out at him. The response she got however was more amusing than she could have imagined. Rigsby jumped, screaming at her in a sarcastic way… and then tripped and ended up in the edge of the lake. Grace couldn't believe it, she found herself laughing rather a lot, but leant over to try and help him up. "Ahhh dear me," she grinned and grabbed his hand, however he decided he would get back at her and pulled her in too. "Heyyyy!" she rolled her eyes at him but chuckled along and stood up.<br>"Lisbon is so gonna kill us…" Wayne announced as they walked out of the lake as Grace checked she'd sealed the evidence bag well. "Looks good, at least we have that I suppose… come on, let's finish our lap." They both chuckled as they carried on round, debating quite how they were going to explain this.

**Hope you enjoyed :) Let me know what you think xx**


	3. Chapter 3

__**School really messes up the whole writing thing :P Sorry this has taken so long guys! I will try and speed up, promise. Hope you enjoy chapter 3, rather enjoyed writing this one!**

**Still own nothing, nada, zilch, zero... **

"I was wondering where you two were… what on earth happened?" Lisbon noticed them come round the corner, and eventually noticed that they were both pretty damp. She could work out it was nothing bad by the grins they were currently trying to hide on their faces. Lisbon often found herself wondering if those two were back together, but Jane had assured her they were simply friends and Jane was usually right about these things.  
>"It was her fault!" Rigsby immediately pointed at Grace and stepped away slightly, knowing he was about to be whacked. "What? You jumped out at me!"<br>"You climbed the tree!" Grace argued back, and leaned over to whack him in the stomach.  
>"You know what…?" Lisbon started, "I don't want to know, I really don't. Just be glad I'm in a good mood and please don't be falling in lakes again… did you find anything?" Grace handed over the evidence to her, explaining her theory and letting Jane have his say.<br>"I'll get the kids on you later…" Grace whispered to Rigsby whilst Lisbon and Jane were mulling over the stone. She chuckled as his face changed, he knew they were a force not to be reckoned with.  
>"Hey, stop gossiping or whatever it is you're doing. You're right, this wasn't used to hurt him, this was just trying to clear evidence so it could come in handy, we'll get it off for testing. You two head back, run searches on the boy, the lake and the family. We've gotta go talk to them." Grace sighed as Lisbon's words brought back the reality of the case. She nodded, not wanting to respond at that moment incase her voice cracked. She grabbed the evidence back and headed off to the car. "She okay?" Lisbon looked over to Rigsby. He paused for a moment, wondering how to answer that. Truth was, he didn't really know, and it was worrying him more and more recently.<br>"She's… up and down… work reminds her of things sometimes. Don't worry, she'll be fine." Wayne smiled, hoping that was enough to keep Lisbon off Grace's case for now and headed over to join Grace in the car.

"You're wet." Cho pointed out helpfully to Rigsby as he walked back in to the bullpen. "Fall in the lake?" he asked, finally looking up to him properly.  
>"Grace jumped out from behind a tree, totally not my fault. Anyway, I need to go change… run a search on the boy – Joseph Galey? Obviously there won't be much; we're more interested in the family." Cho didn't question it, he'd given up trying to point out to Rigsby how he clearly still loved Grace, and she obviously returned the favour. Instead he allowed them to be 'best friends' and provide general entertainment to the rest of the team, which they did mostly very well, however Cho could assume Lisbon would be less than impressed with the wet clothes situation. He watched Rigsby head back out to go and change in the loos before getting on to the search on the boy. Whilst it ran he sat back, waiting for something exciting to happen.<br>"You're looking… well, like normal. Exciting things happening here I take it?" Grace had finally entered the bullpen after insisting she changed first.  
>"Nope. Other than Rigsby looking like a drowned rat." Cho said in his normal tone, not looking up from the computer screen. "Running a search on the boy… aha. Everything we already know… I assume Lisbon and Jane are on the way to the family?" he looked up to Van Pelt for confirmation before continuing, "Dad works for a computer company… Mum doesn't work, lives at home. They divorced 2 years ago. Dad has open contact to the boy and his sister… " Grace nodded at him but didn't respond otherwise, and turned to sit down at her desk. She started typing away at her computer without explaining what she was doing, which was always a bit worrying – it usually meant she was distracting herself from something.<p>

"Well that went awfully well Jane. Well done." Lisbon marched back to the car, struggling not to hit the man walking behind her.  
>"What? I only asked if he'd ever got in to fights…" Jane followed her to the car, struggling to see what the problem was.<br>"When we'd just told them their son was dead? You could have at least given it a few minutes Jane. You of all people should know how they feel!" Lisbon slammed the door behind her before realising what she'd said. "Sorry… that was uncalled for…" Jane sat beside her, the glazed look she'd seen on him a few times in cases like this had returned, just for a few seconds.  
>"Yeh. It was. Let's get back." Jane answered, returning back to his usual self and leaning against the window.<br>"Sorry. You get anything from them?" Lisbon decided getting back to the case was the best idea.  
>"Well they're divorced like they said, but there was no tension there when they were both in the house – mutual agreement I'd guess." Once he was back in his element Lisbon knew she was fairly safe. "Vanessa's boyfriend seemed very upset too. He must've been on the scene a while and got on with the kids… other than that, nothing much." Lisbon nodded, everything she'd suspected – they all seemed pretty happy. She didn't want to point out how they now had no leads because they'd had to leave early, she'd just get another earful.<p>

"What is it with you and too small t-shirts when you have to change?" Cho grinned as Rigsby came back.  
>"It was the best they had downstairs… I'll work it out. So how we doing?" Rigsby grinned and sat on the edge of Cho's desk.<br>"Nothing much on the search. But erm…" Cho nodded towards Grace who was still typing away at the computer, not even registering that Wayne had arrived back. Rigsby nodded in agreement and went over to her.  
>"Hey, look what you got me wearing? I mean really, you owe me a lot!" He chucked, figuring that if he asked her if she was alright he'd only get blanked. He was quite shocked when there was no response. "Oi, Grace, wake up you!" he waved a hand in front of her computer screen.<br>"What? No…no. Sorry. Erm, look at this…" Grace pointed at the screen, still typing things in. "I had a hunch, so I researched Dad… he had his name changed 10 years ago, a year before he and Vanessa, the mum, got married. So I searched the previous name and look what came up…" Wayne moved round to read the screen.  
>"Owch… our daddy's not so innocent."<p>

**Let me know what you think! :) xx**


	4. Chapter 4

**So I managed to write quicker this time with a sudden burst of inspiration, please enjoy, and please review! I want to know what you guys think :)**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine! Maybe the 19th Birthday...? **

Grace couldn't help but laugh as Joe somehow managed to tackle Rigsby to the ground outside.  
>"Graaaaace! Your nephew is attacking meeee!" she heard him call, but dutifully ignored it to allow Joe to carry on. She chuckled and moved away from the window, putting the chicken in the oven for dinner. When she went to stand back up from her crouched position, she found Hannah attached to her leg.<br>"Hey sweetie, you alright?" she said, picking her up and leaning against the counter, glad everything was cooking now. Hannah nodded happily and gestured to go over to the window, Grace had no quibbles with that, she didn't mind watching Wayne being beaten up by an 8 year old kid.  
>"Mummy," Hannah started once they were over there, and Grace had strategically positioned herself so most of Hannah's weight was on the worktop. Hannah had been calling her mummy more often recently, and as much as she wanted it to be their choice, part of Grace felt like she'd not been talking about Megan enough. "Do you love Wayne? Because…" she paused, forming the rest of the sentence in her head, "Joe said that his friend said that you love him because he's always here. And he said that he saw you kiss him." Hannah giggled to herself at the last bit, where Grace secretly cursed herself. She'd had a feeling Joe had been at the top of the stairs that night, but had tried to convince herself otherwise. Then she realised she had to answer Hannah's question.<br>"Well… honey… you're getting very bright aren't you?" she began, but that clearly didn't satisfy Hannah's needs. "I do like Wayne of course, we're best friends. But I don't love him sweetheart, we just like spending time together, like you and Bethany," she continued, referring to Hannah's best friend. "I hadn't actually realised Joe had seen us then… but we were just kissing goodbye darling. So don't be worrying about that okay?" Hannah stared at her face for a little longer before shrugging and looking out the window.  
>"Okay," was her only response. Eventually Hannah asked to join the boys outside, and Grace let her go. Hannah was getting bright, she wasn't wrong there, and sometimes it worried her just how clever she and Joe were… it was getting more and more difficult to keep how she felt about Wayne from them… but she knew she had to.<p>

Once they were both in bed, Grace collapsed down on the sofa, clearly shattered. Rigsby went to sit down beside her but she kicked him gently, making him stand up. "Coffee first." She said, grinning slightly and chuckling as he got back up again and headed to the kitchen in a strange little huff. Once she'd eventually managed to settle down her thoughts went back to what Hannah had said. She hated the doubt that lay in her mind over her relationship with Wayne, she wanted answers, but she couldn't get them. Or could she…?  
>"Wayne…?" she looked up at him as she took the coffee he'd made. He looked at her with the familiar concerned face and sat down beside her. Grace froze for a moment, suddenly realising what she was about to do. She sighed gently to herself before giving up, and changing the conversation before it even started. "Can you remember what's happening about picking the Dad up tomorrow? I've completely forgotten…" She wanted to kick herself, she really did. It was such a stupid fall back too, she was surprised he even fell for it.<br>"We're going over to the flats first thing, but sounds like the guy could be dangerous so we need to be careful… that's about all really." Grace nodded, leaning back.  
>"I can't believe he was a drug dealer and such a violent one at that… I know it was a long time ago, and he's obviously changed that… well I hope anyway, but still… he hurt a kid Wayne!" She found herself getting a little too angry over the whole situation, and Rigsby clearly noticed as he took her coffee from her, putting it down.<br>"Calm down… okay? It was a long time ago, but we still have to check him out. Are you going to cope with this?" he asked, looking concerned. She nodded and leant in to him, letting him calm her down. Maybe they couldn't be together, but he could still make her feel better.

"He wasn't in, but Van Pelt did a good job of trying to knock the door down." Rigsby said as they walked in to the bull pen after having attempted to pick up the Dad. He was trying to make light of the situation, but Grace was clearly not in the mood. She sat down at her desk, ignoring everyone's looks after Wayne's comments and started trying to work out where they were going to find him. "Doesn't look like he's been there in a few days, so either he's on holiday or he's just left. I'm guessing Grace is trying to work that one out…" Rigsby continued, but having had nothing from her since they left the flats, he wasn't expecting anything now. He'd left her last night and she was fine, but something was going on with her, and he'd no idea what.

Lisbon gestured for Jane to join her in the office and so he did. "We should go and see Vanessa again, find out if she knows where he might be?" Jane looked at her, trying to work out what she really meant.  
>"You're concerned Grace isn't working at her best? Don't think she'll be able to find out where he is…" Lisbon sighed, she was trying to keep her concerns quiet for now but she should have guessed Jane would work it out.<br>"It's not… so much that… she's just very up and down, don't want to upset her. Come on, let's go." Lisbon stood up; Jane decided he would end up being hit if he carried on, so left it for now, following her. He wanted to question Vanessa anyway, seeing as he never got to finish last time.

When she opened the office door, Lisbon found Grace waiting outside for her. She debated asking her what was up, but that was probably a bad idea, so she just looked interested in to why she was there.  
>"Landlord said he's not been around for a while, and I found this." Grace handed over a sheet of paper to Lisbon with a list of names on – one highlighted. "Dennis Galey checked in to a hotel 5 days ago, a local one. Why would he be living in a hotel when he has a flat so close by?" Jane shot Lisbon a look to tell her she was wrong, and she shot him one back which ended that silent conversation.<br>"Nice one Grace. Looks like you and Rigsby had better get down to the hotel." Grace's face changed slightly at the mention of that. "Problem?" Lisbon asked, slightly confused.  
>"No… no problem." Grace said, forcing a smile and walking back to get her things. There was a problem; she just wasn't all that sure what it was yet<p>

**Comments please? Thank youuuuuuu xx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, another update! I know, it's madness right? So, I'm really enjoying writing this, and I hope you are enjoying reading it too. But I'd like to know if you're out there guys! Let me know what you're thinking of this, good or bad, please review! Thankyou, love you all! **

**Disclaimer: Do not own the mentalist, just my own wild thoughts.**

"Grace? Grace for goodness sake talk to me!" Rigsby had been trying to get a word out of her since she left. She'd almost left without him until Lisbon had told him he should be there too. "What is going on? We were fine last night, have I done something?" She didn't look up from the road, which was probably wise, but she didn't even answer. "Grace I just…" Grace couldn't take anymore, hearing his voice drove her mad, drove her mad in a way she wanted to be mad, but she knew she couldn't go there. Right now they had a child murderer to find and she didn't want to be confused over her own life, she needed to focus.  
>"Just leave it!" She shouted at him, snapping without thinking.<br>"No, I can't leave it when you're…"  
>"If you can't leave it then get out!" Wayne didn't know how to react to that, she'd never been that mad at him before, it didn't make sense.<br>"Fine, fine if that's what you want… then fine!" The car stopped and he got out, he wasn't sure why but he did. As soon as he was out she drove off, continuing towards the destination – if you're going to do something right, you do it yourself.

"Jane you got us kicked out of that house, again!" Lisbon sighed, storming back to the car. "We were beginning to get somewhere Patrick, why'd you go and mess things up again. Did you even find anything?" She stopped with a start, looking around at him, hoping he'd come up with something to make her less angry at him, she didn't really like it whatever anyone else thought.  
>"Well… not exactly… BUT she has quite a temper on her don't you think?" Lisbon opened her mouth to say something, but gave up. "Ahaaaa you know I'm right. See, we need to look in to her past a bit more don't you think? She wasn't telling us anything, whatever we asked." Of course he was right, he's always bloody right. He grinned at her when he realised what she was thinking and jumped in the car with her. "Come on, let's go do some digging."<p>

Lisbon and Jane began to head back to HQ, driving along, conversation diverting from what they had found at the house to how good Lisbon would look in a cat suit, not that she was thrilled with the conversation, but Jane was loving her reaction. It didn't take them long to get back, the roads were surprisingly clear and it wasn't too far away. Lisbon came to the conclusion the conversation should veer back to normal… well normal for her, anyway.  
>"Rigsby and Van Pelt should be talking to the Dad now, hopefully that'll shed some light on things… or not?" She spotted Wayne walking in through the main doors and jumped out, running to catch up with him. "Rigsby? What's going on? You should still be there." She told him, realising she was stating the obvious, but confused none the less.<br>"Grace is there, at least I think she is… I er, had to come back, well, get out, told her it was better to go alone than wait for me…" he told his boss, trying to cover for Van Pelt but struggling to come up with the goods. Lisbon clearly wasn't convinced, and told him to wait for her in her office.

Grace had arrived at the hotel about 15 minutes after abandoning Rigsby. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty, however the overwhelming anger she felt at herself for losing concentration was driving her on, leading her to continue with the job regardless. She now found herself in a hotel room with Denis Galey, questioning him as he stood there, now dressed.  
>"So you've been waiting for someone I can only presume? Given that the shower clearly hasn't run and you were in a bath robe…" she'd taken a wander around whilst he had changed, noting things down that seemed odd to her. "And the fact you're living in a hotel, despite owning a house half an hour away." She added, before allowing him to answer.<p>

"So I've got a girlfriend, is it a crime? My place is pretty bad don't you think?" he had a point, if she'd seen that place she may have been put off a bit, but it still didn't feel right.

"So what's her name?" Grace asked, pulling out her notepad.

"Cassie Davies, and yes I was with her the night... That night. So you can go and leave me in peace." Van Pelt nodded, she didn't really have much more to ask him, but she was meant to be bringing him in.

"Why hide all your convictions from us Mr Galey? You should know we are very good at digging things up, it wasn't hard to figure out you changed your name..." But before she could finish, Grace found herself pinned up against the wall, a knife holding her still.

"I knew this would happen, you think I did it! Well I never, he's my son! And you are going to find out who did this, without wasting your time with me!" Typical, the one time she didn't have backup... She didn't say anything straight away, given that most things she had to say would only make things worse for her right now. Why had she been so stupid in that car? Now she was in a little bit of a situation...

"Right, I want to know exactly what really happened here, you weren't too convincing out there if we're being honest." Lisbon sat down in her chair, beginning to get a little fed up with sorting out issues between him and Van Pelt, though they usually entailed the two of them being in trouble together rather than one of them turning up back at HQ without the other. Rigsby found himself trying to think of a more plausible excuse but nothing even vaguely reasonable occurred to him. He sighed as he knew he was going to have to tell Lisbon what really happened.

"Well... It was my fault really... I shouldn't have been pushing her for an answer really, shes just been real quiet today and well... She asked me to get out. So I did. But I must have been driving her mad..." He found himself trying to work out what had happened as he was talking to Lisbon about it. The whole walk back he had been trying to work out why she could be acting this way. He tried to make a joke out of things this morning and that had backfired, so he tried he caring way and she chucked him out of the car, nothing seemed to make sense to him. He hadn't even notice Lisbon replying to him as he thought about how he could have hurt someone so special to him.  
>"...and ever since you two have been friends so I thought we had no problems here. But the last few months you've been getting in to trouble together more and more, and now it's ended with what seems to me like a stupid falling out. You're both adults!" Rigsby just nodded and mumbled an apology. Lisbon waved him out after that, there was no point in carrying on the conversation.<p>

***  
>Back in the hotel, Grace was still pinned up against the wall. She'd begun to try and reason with the bloke but so far she had just managed to wind him up more.<p>

"I promise you Mr Galey, I am just trying to find out who did this to your son. He was only a little boy sir and that makes me even more determined..." She wasn't lying, every time she thought of that little boy lying lifeless beside the lake she found her heart breaking a little more for him, and anger built up inside her for whoever had done this. However whatever she thought of Denis Galey right now she should probably avoid getting stabbed...

**So erm, yes, she's in a bit of trouble! Now, going on what I said earlier, let me know what you think! Please and Thank you. 3**


	6. Chapter 6

**Madly writing at the moment, making the most of the inspiration! Really hope you guys are enjoying, but I don't know who's reading at the moment... or what you think! *HintHint.* Anyway, still writing for the moment.**

**You may notice there's a little bit of Jisbon creeping in in the next few chapters. This is more of a side story but I'm trying to make it fit in as much as possible, and it will come to a conclusion in one form or another along with the main storyline. Hope you like this.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, still own nothing. Though I could argue Hannah and Joe were my creations? **

Jane could see Lisbon getting more and more frustrated as the minutes passed. She was pacing again, that meant trouble. Himself, he wasn't too bothered. He had a hunch, of course he did, he always did, and it was always right (well nearly, but he'd never admit that.) It was going to take some time to be able to prove this though, so he was leaving them to it for now. Of course this just added to Lisbon's frustrations but he was always leaving her frustrated by something.  
>"Why are you grinning at me?" He hadn't even noticed he was grinning quite so much, but apparently so. The honest answer to that question would be how much he enjoyed watching her, even in a bad mood she somehow managed to cheer him up rather a lot, she was just so… well, yes. He couldn't tell her that anyway, it was far from appropriate. "Seriously Jane, I have no idea what that grin means." Well that was a relief, if she'd realised this conversation would be a lot more awkward.<br>"You're just… amusing me." Jane eventually came out with, almost struggling for an answer – this is what she did to him.  
>"Amusing you? Really? You do pick your moments…." Rigsby walked back in towards the end of this, he'd been trying to contact Grace again after Lisbon trying a few times. She'd been a while without contact, but then she was busy.<br>"Still nothing… she should be back by now surely?" Lisbon debated pointing out he should never have left her, but she'd done that enough in the last hour or so. She knew they were going to have to go out and find out what was going on, it was all delaying a case that needed solving.  
>"Fine, right, you and I will go and see what's going on. Cho can stay here and mind the phones," she looked over to him to check that was okay, "and Jane… oh who knows. Whatever." She rolled her eyes, grabbed her jacket and headed out to the car.<p>

***  
>"You don't want to help, not me. None of you want to help me. You want to lock me up. So I've got form, automatically means I did it? No I don't think so, but you lot don't care about that clearly!" Grace was trying her best not to look scared, but honestly she was. Only then did it occur to her she had forgotten to put her vest on… she'd been so distracted! Cursing herself once again, she turned her attention back to replying to the guy with the knife.<br>"Denis really, I do care, I care about finding out the truth, I care about working out who did this terrible thing to such a young boy. He's your son, I know you want to know too, but right now you're not helping yourself look too good…" As soon as she'd said that she knew the mistake had been made. He was angry, ever so angry. She felt the knife go in quickly, in and out before she could do anything else, and he was out the door and away.

As soon as he let her go she fell to the floor, immediately grabbing her stomach and putting pressure on to try and stop the blood loss. Grace tried to reach her phone which had fallen on the floor, but it was just too far out of her reach. She gave up after a little whilst and lay back against the wall, trying to keep her breathing as calm as possible. It was hard not to reflect over what had just happened, and more to the point – why it had happened. She could feel she wasn't herself today; something was making her to lose concentration and lose her normal sense of control. The incident in the car was so petty, she knew that – it was far from what she wanted, him leaving, she wanted to spend every minute of every day with him… she loved Wayne Rigsby! Admitting it to herself, she sighed gently. She'd never lost that feeling, not really, been distracted maybe but… recently it was like it had resurfaced, come back to haunt her, and it was becoming harder and harder to fight the fight. Still, she couldn't say anything; she couldn't lose the amazing bond they had now… so she would have to sort it out within herself.

It seemed like forever before she heard voices outside the door. Voices she recognised. Ah the unmistakable voice of Patrick Jane… and Lisbon saying something to make him shut up. They must have realised how long she was taking on what should have been a simple pick up… yes, it should have been simple, but maybe it wasn't so easy on your own. Grace tried to call out, tell them to get in here, but she was too quiet, to close to unconsciousness. She prayed they would come in soon, she wasn't entirely sure why they were still stood outside there, but she assumed they had no keycard. "Come on…please…" she whispered to herself, "I need you now…"

Just outside, Lisbon and Jane were having one of their conversations. Essentially Jane was managing to wind her up to the point where Lisbon gave up and rolled her eyes. Rigsby stood closer to the door than them whilst they waited for someone to bring them entry.  
>"Boss! It's real quiet in there…" he interrupted, getting fed up that neither of them had realised this. "Her car was outside still wasn't it?" Lisbon suddenly realised what he was getting at and broke off the conversation with Jane, though warning him it would be continued. She moved over to the door, listened carefully and realised what he was on about. "We can't wait any longer; it shouldn't take much to open…" Rigsby looked over to his Boss, begging her to let him in. Something was really wrong, he could feel it, and whatever had happened today, he wasn't going to leave her.<p>

As soon as he received the nod from Lisbon, Rigsby started ramming the door. He got in on the second attempt and immediately spotted the worst sight he could imagine.  
>"Grace…" Lisbon spoke his words as both the agents ran over to her, kneeling either side. Jane stayed back but looked just as shocked as they felt. "Alright love, we're here. You're going to be okay yeh? JANE!..."<br>"I'm already on it." He replied, phoning 911 as they did all they could for Grace.  
>Wayne held Grace gently, as Lisbon took over pressure on the wound, and did anything else she could to help. He couldn't help but feel responsible for this, if he'd only stood up to her in the car, if he'd just followed her over instead of going back to HQ.<br>"I'm sorry sweetheart…" he whispered to her, despite her unconscious state, "You're going to be okay, I'm going to make sure you're okay, and then we're going to sort this all out…" Rigsby sighed, looking up to Lisbon. "She's taking it hard, this case, she's not herself… this was my fault, I'm sorry." Lisbon didn't reply, she knew he was right. Ever since Grace had taken in her niece and nephew her attitude had changed and for some reason she hadn't thought that her Joe was almost the same age as Joseph, the boy they'd found. They'd all let her down this time, they really had…


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi again, more writing has happened, so enjoy :) **

**Thanks so much to Synesti for reviewing, means a lot and it's a great inspiration to keep going!**

**Disclaimer: I still kinda own nothing so erm... yeh. It all belongs to Bruno Heller and his friends. **

A white ceiling, the faint sound of beeping and a blur of people around her allowed Grace to conclude she was in hospital. The numb feeling from her stomach meant she could be fairly certain these were some strong painkillers being pumped in to her too. Someone came over to her who looked pretty official and told her she'd be okay, and then some jargon about what happened that Grace was still too confused to really understand. Eventually the nurses and doctors dispersed, leaving her surrounded by Lisbon, Jane and Cho. Where was Rigsby? She hadn't upset him that badly had she?  
>"Grace? Thank goodness you've woken up… really scared us for a bit there. Did you catch what the doctor said to you?" Lisbon spoke up, concern slightly present in her voice. Grace shook her head, still struggling with the talking aspect of things as her throat was quite dry. Cho handed her some water and she nodded a thank you. "Basically, you were lucky. Knife didn't cause too much damage and you should be out of here in a few hours, if all is well. But nothing too taxing in the next few days yeh?" Oh the 3 words Grace hated – nothing too taxing. That meant no work, because it'll be classed as too stressful.<br>"Lisbon I want… need to help with this. Especially now." Grace pushed the words out, coughing at the end and feeling the pain in her stomach, before sipping some more water. Lisbon decided now wasn't the time for arguments, and just nodded slightly. Van Pelt knew that wasn't the end of it, but she wasn't quite up for that yet. "Rigsby…" she looked around, in case she'd missed him.  
>"Outside. I'll go grab him for you." Cho replied, leaving the rest of the team to stay with her.<p>

When Wayne arrived, the rest of the team went out to grab coffee, figuring they needed time to sort things out. Though Lisbon gave them both a warning not to get Grace too stressed or they'd have her to answer to. Of course they already did, but that was a matter not for the moment.  
>"I'm sorry…" They both said, together. Rigsby shook his head at her, "You shouldn't be sorry, this is my fault. I should never have left you alone to do that, it was stupid, and against the rules, and well… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" Grace sighed, she didn't like this.<br>"I shouted at you…" she began, having to take things pretty slow so she could get words out, "so wrong… didn't mean it… just upset… friends?" Wayne nodded; taking her in for a hug as best her could without hurting her. They would always be friends, nothing could break that. However confused she was, Grace could work out from this that she couldn't just ignore him, and she couldn't live without him.

Jane and Lisbon stood outside the room drinking their respective hot drinks, and chatting away.  
>"Well, at least we won't have them two arguing like an old married couple. That's our job." Jane commented to Lisbon. She wasn't immediately sure which part of that to reply to, and so didn't, changing the topic slightly.<br>"I'm still going to have to talk to them about what happened… something's gone really unprofessional recently and I do not like it," she sighed, looking back at Grace. "But for now, we've got to try and stop her from working too hard, if at all. Because she will, especially when she's so involved in the case after this." Jane put a hand on her shoulder.  
>"Lisbon dear, calm. She'll be fine; I think Rigsby's got her covered yeh? You need to focus on the guy who stabbed her and ran away, oh and yourself okay?" At first she was in a bit of shock, Jane was holding her shoulder… still, holding her shoulder.<br>"Jane? What?" He just smiled, kissing her gently on the head and walking off, leaving Lisbon standing still, very still.

Cho had been looking after Hannah and Joe while all this was happening, but it was getting increasingly difficult to distract them from the fact their Aunt was lying injured down the corridor.  
>"I want to see her…" Joe had completely given up with playing, and Hannah was lying with him on the chair, asking for Grace every 2 minutes.<br>"I want Auntie Grace… I miss her…" Cho sighed; he didn't know what to do with them, not really. Eventually he gave in, coming to the conclusion they'd be too tired to make her stressed or the like. Nodding, he guided them up and towards the room she was in.

Grace sat up as much as she could when the kids came in. They tried to run over but a few people informed them not to, and so they walked over nicely, before climbing on either side of the bed and grabbing hold of her. Rigsby looked concerned, obviously worried they would hurt her, but Grace nodded at him to tell him it was okay, probably only for a little bit though.  
>"Hey you two… you been good for me?" Grace smiled, trying to seem as normal as possible for them and her voice coming back to her. They both nodded, still hugging in to her quietly. "I wouldn't expect anything less." She smiled, kissing them both on the head and lying back.<br>"Will you come home?" Hannah perked up, suddenly Grace realised that last time they'd been on a hospital, mummy hadn't come home… poor kids, she sighed to herself.  
>"Of course I'll be home sweetheart. They say I'll be able to go tonight, but you'll have to go to bed before then, I'll be home when you wake up okay? I promise… Wayne will take you home and put you to bed okay?" She knew they'd trust him enough to let him take them from her, most other people got screamed at if they even tried. They both seemed to accept this and cuddled in to her, very tired. "I love you both…" she told them, before letting Rigsby pick them up from either side of her.<br>"Lisbon's going to bring you home if and when they let you go, I'll be there to greet you okay? You're gonna need help in the morning anyway." He left before she could reply and took them home, leaving her along. She lay in the quiet, once again faced with the white ceiling and the light beeping which informed her she was still alive, that was something at least.


	8. Chapter 8

**Apologies! This was meant to go up last night and I totally forgot, sorry :( **

**Hope you enjoy Chapter 8, let me know what you think :)**

**Thank you to dreamingofabetterday for beta reading :D**

**Disclaimer: I totally own... nothing really :P But enjoy! **

Jane returned to find Lisbon still in the same position he'd left her in.  
>"So Rigsby just took the kids home; they looked pretty shattered bless them. Have you frozen? Lisbon?" Patrick Jane found himself stood in front of Teresa Lisbon, waving his hand to try and get her to move and talk.<br>"Sorry, erm, must be getting tired." It seemed enough of a valid excuse. She looked up at Jane's face and suddenly remembered why she'd frozen in the first place. "We should go and see how Grace is doing, really hope they let her out soon." Jane saw her look, and began to wonder if she was feeling how he had been recently.  
>"Good plan… they did say it wouldn't be long, she's been damn lucky." He added and followed her in, staying slightly behind so he could see her strong walk, and smiled gently, before joining her at Grace's bedside.<p>

Grace smiled, pushing herself up to be sat properly when they arrived. She was feeling a lot better now, it was still difficult to move too much, and breathe too hard, but she could talk and didn't feel too bad and to her that justified being able to go.  
>"Please tell me I can get home? It's impossible to sleep on this thing and I'm incredibly bored." She put a slight face on which made Lisbon smile a bit.<br>"Sorry love, but I doubt it'll be long okay? We'll hang around till you go. Where'd Cho go do you know?" She realised she'd not seen him for a while (she'd been too busy thinking about Jane when he'd taken the kids to her earlier).  
>"Home I think. He brought Hannah and Joe in earlier and I think Rigsby might have told him to get home… what happened about Denis?" Grace hadn't even thought about asking the question until now. They'd all been here, so it was difficult to know what was going on outside.<br>"Another team is looking for him, however I've told them to deliver him to us as soon as he's found. So that'll be what we're doing tomorrow I guess." Grace nodded, at least people were looking for him… she'd just have rather been doing it herself.

Conversation fell silent after that. Everyone was tired, though Jane did little to show it. Time passed by slowly with the slightly awkward silence continuing throughout. After about an hour this was broken by the doctor coming back in holding a tablet with her scan on it.

"You'll be pleased to hear everything is clear, you're free to go. But you're under strict orders to do nothing strenuous for at least 2 weeks, no stress and definitely no running about. Other than that... Just be careful I suppose." the doctor nodded to Lisbon and Jane before leaving. Grace thanked him as he did, thinking over what he had said to her. Nothing strenuous and no stress, so persuading Lisbon to let her work would be difficult... And no running about? Did this guy have 2 kids under 10? Obviously not.

Wayne sat on the sofa in Grace's living room, staring at the TV but not really watching it. Whatever Grace had said, whatever he had said, he still blamed himself for the whole incident. In his time sat here he had decided he would do everything to make it up to her - he had to. Just as this thought passed through again he heard the turning of a key in the lock - she was back. Standing up, Rigsby headed over to the door to find Grace leaning on Lisbon and walking in slowly.

"Here let me take her," he offered to Lisbon and put an arm round Grace so Lisbon could slide hers out. She nodded a thank you and shut the door behind her and Jane who had decided to follow them back.

"Given that Hannah and Joe won't be in school tomorrow I'm going to sign you off for the day Rigsby. Grace will need some help but I don't expect they'll want to go to the childminders after this." Lisbon spoke to Rigsby first, she had to understand the situation here however much she wanted to get the talk with them over and done with. After all, if she gave Rigsby the day off she could make it a 'cooling off' day. And then she could get away with no more punishment, those two had been punished enough recently. "Grace, however much you hate it I do have to tell you not to come in for at least a few days, sorry love." She waited for an argument back but didn't get it. Grace just nodded at her. After that Lisbon and Jane left.

Wayne managed to get Grace over to the sofa and helped her sit down. "I should really insist you go to bed... But I know I would never win that argument," he smiled at her and sat down beside her.  
>"You don't have to stay here you know? I can cope. I don't want you to have to hang around here for no reason... after today I wouldn't want to be around here anyway." Rigsby sighed, why didn't she get it yet?<br>"Grace I want to be here okay? Whether you want me around here or not I am going to be here. You'll need help with Joe and Hannah, there's no way you'll be able to amuse them all day from the sofa after all. You're not getting rid of me for as long as I see that you need me."  
><em>I'll always need you...<br>_ No. That's not where this conversation was going.  
>"Fine... Okay. Just don't make me stay in bed drinking soup all day or somehow I will chuck you out okay?" He knew she probably wasn't kidding so agreed to this condition. She leaned in to him slightly after that, one hand on her stomach and the other resting on his leg. Wayne smiled and put an arm round her, that definitely made her feel better...<p>

This silence was comforting, much more pleasant than having Jane and Lisbon exchanging strange glances over you. However Grace began to notice small signs of movement from behind the other sofa followed by some peeping eyes round the side of it.  
>"It's alright Hannah, come out from there." she sat up slightly so Hannah would be able to sit between her and Wayne. "Is Joe with you?" she asked as Hannah crawled out and headed over to them. Hannah shook her head.<br>"He's asleep… I heard you come back. Wanted to see you're okay." Grace almost wanted to chuckle, that was so typical – Hannah worrying madly and Joe falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.  
>"Well I'm fine darling, promise. Come on, quick hug and then Wayne can take you to bed." She put her arm round Hannah and hugged her as best she could. Hannah settled on to her chest, being extra careful.<br>"Can't you take me?" she looked up at Grace, her little face a mix of worry and wanting Grace around.  
>"Sorry sweetheart, the doctor won't let me do too much at the moment. You'll be okay won't you? I know Wayne's a little scary… but it's just the face, well, mostly anyway," she grinned. "Go on, I'll be here in the morning, you need to sleep sweetheart. We'll have a nice day tomorrow okay?" she looked to Wayne and he picked Hannah up, taking her to bed.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys Okay, really sorry for the delay in updating! I'm here now **

**Thanks to Synesti for a great review! And to dreamingofabetterday for being my epic beta reader!**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine…**

After they left the house, Lisbon and Jane got in to their respective cars. While Jane headed home, Lisbon found herself sitting in the car, thinking back over what had happened earlier with Jane. She noticed him drive off and found herself thinking about following him, she wasn't even sure why but she wanted to. She didn't really know what he wanted, whether he wanted anything, maybe he had just been kidding. If he had, then going round would just be plain embarrassing, but if he wasn't then she could finally find out if this would work. It made no sense, she was… fond of… the one person that annoyed her the most, and yet she didn't care about that, in fact it was all part of what made Jane, Jane. Eventually she shook her head, trying to tell herself it was nonsense, and drove home.

There wasn't much left of the night after that, but morning came and Grace woke up, finding herself still on the sofa and still lying on Wayne. They must have fallen asleep when they were talking.  
>"Morning sleepyhead…" he smiled, stroking her hair back. "How you feeling this morning?" She smiled back at him, taking a moment to work out how she was feeling.<br>"Better… much better actually. Still a bit painful but you can't have everything can you?" She smiled gently, managing to sit up with little help. She noticed the clock next. "10 past 9? Are they awake?" She asked, referring to the kids and looking upstairs for movement.  
>"No movement, they would have been very tired I'm sure. Shall I go and check on them?" He stood up, straightening himself out first and making sure she was alright.<br>"No… help me upstairs? I need to change anyway and I want to be there for them, yesterday would have been really hard for them both, especially Joe, he doesn't talk about things so much." Rigsby decided he wouldn't argue this time, and helped her up making sure he was supporting her as much as possible so she didn't injure herself any more than she had.

It took a while to get upstairs, but then Grace found she was able to walk fairly well on her own, just gripping on to Wayne's arm every now and then. She leant herself against the doorframe of the bedroom that Hannah and Joe share and pushed the door open so she could see them. Hannah lay in her usual position, flat on her back and arms up, looking ever so innocent and peaceful whilst completely flat out asleep. Joe however seemed to be curled up, almost like he was trying to hide from something and he was shaking slightly but still asleep. Grace looked at him, concern washing over her face and reached out for Rigsby's hand, bringing herself back up and walking over to his bed, carefully sitting on the edge and pulling Joe close to her, despite a slight pain in her stomach from twisting round. Wayne gave her a concerned look when she grimaced slightly, but she shook it off.  
>"Joe… baby it's okay, everything's okay. I've got you, settle down now sweetheart." She stroked his hair gently and rocked him slightly, he might be 8 now but he still needed her and she wouldn't let him feel otherwise. As he began to become still, Grace started to sing to them, a song that Megan had once sung to her when she was younger and so she hoped Joe would have heard as well. This seemed to work, and the young boy relaxed in her arms.<br>"Mummy sang that…" she heard a whisper from Hannah who subsequently sat up and got out of bed. "Is Joe okay?" She questioned, and headed for a hug from Wayne as Grace seemed busy.  
>"He's fine sweetheart, was just having a nightmare that's all. Why don't you go with Wayne and find something nice for breakfast in the cupboard? We'll be down soon." This seemed to distract her, and they were both soon heading downstairs as Hannah somehow managed to drag the tall man behind her.<p>

"Joe, darling it's time to get up now…" She didn't want to wake him, but if she didn't then he'd never sleep tonight. Over time Grace had grown to learn these things about the two children, they both had their specific characteristics – especially when it came to sleeping. His eyes flicked open gently and he immediately put his arms round her, obviously wanting comfort from whatever his dreams had been about. There was a slight shot of pain when he squeezed a little, but Grace did her best not to show him this. "Good boy… good boy. Come on, Hannah and Wayne are getting breakfast, we don't want to miss out now do we?" That woke him up, food – even at this age it's still a man's greatest weakness.

Lisbon was already in when Jane got to HQ that morning. They'd heard the Denis had been found and therefore was on his way in, so she'd called them all in earlier than planned to get it sorted. Lisbon had probably been in for a couple of hours of course, and yet still looked like she'd spent a while getting ready. He smiled, watching from a distance as she was doing paperwork in her office and taking in every detail down to the movement of her hand as she wrote; somehow even doing this she looked gorgeous.

Before long he heard the shout of Denis Galey, claiming all innocence and shouting about how they were wasting time when they could be finding his son.  
>"Actually sir, I think you will find that we are looking for your son. However since you tried to murder one of our agents when being questioned you have now become suspect number one, congratulations Mr Galey, enjoy your stay." Jane confronted the man, looking smug as he finished and directing the police escorts to the interview room before going to find Lisbon. "Hey look at me playing by the rules," he began, "Our friend Denis Galey has arrived." He only had to say his name and Lisbon stood up, beginning to march out. Jane blocked her exit, grabbing her arm. "Let's not kill him just yet eh?"<p>

**Okay, I will do my best to update quickly, but I'm not in much… well, at all, this weekend, so you will have to bear with me? Please? Thank you! :D **


	10. Chapter 10

**So I fail a little bit at updating... really sorry! I had to rewrite this chapter about 5 times to get it right, and even then I wasn't sure! So thank you to dreamingofabetterday for beta reading and telling me it was okay :)**

**You can all enjoy now! Thanks to Synesti again for reading and reviewing, it's lovely to know what people think of it and reviews often give me ideas as to where to go with the story, so please review :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own nowt, nada, zilch, zero... nothing. Oh, other than Hannah and Joe who came from my imagination ;) But anything else, nope. **

**Enjoy! xx**

Jane stood beside Lisbon as they watched Cho trying to get information out of Denis. It had been almost 15 minutes now and he refused to say almost anything other than 'he's my son.' Lisbon was getting very agitated, Jane could sense it from the way she stood… or paced.  
>"He's not going to tell us anything useful Jane, but I still don't trust him. Something's going on…" She was getting good at this, he was almost feeling quite proud until he realised she'd gone in to the interview room. She distracted him way too much sometimes…. He followed her in.<br>"Galey you're going to tell us what's going on! You're hiding something, I know you are, and I'm going to find out!" She slammed her fist on the table in front of him, at which he made no response. This just frustrated her even more, but Jane could see that's what he really wanted.  
>"Hey, Lisbon, leave it. We can get him for Grace and try him again later. Now, let's go find something else to solve this yeh?" He was right, and she knew it, and for once she listened and left.<p>

24 hours later and they still seemed to be nowhere. Jane had struggled to convince Lisbon that it might not have been Galey's fault, even if it did seem the most obvious option they had. Sure he was hiding something, but it wasn't the murder of his own son. But now they'd run out of ideas, in every way, even he wasn't sure quite where to go now.  
>"Rigsby called, they're both coming in. Along with the kids, school's out due to the toilets flooding. Figured we could do with their energy to help us along here." Cho wandered in and spoke in his usual tone, sitting down and looking at the computer as if it would give him some ideas. Lisbon eventually reacted to what he said and looked up.<br>"They might just cheer me up… we can hope. And normally I would complain about Grace coming back so soon but to be honest, we need her and Rigsby here right now. But she's not leaving this building okay? Right... let's move." She stood up, somehow gaining some energy from somewhere and went off to read the files again.

Not long after, two children ran in to the bull pen, screaming excitedly and running over to Jane, jumping on him, and shouting hellos at him. Rigsby soon followed, breathless, and had clearly been trying to control them but got rather left behind.  
>"Guys! Come on, don't squash Jane just yet, we need him just now. Come on, off the sofa." He told them, before leaning over to get his breath back. Grace hobbled in behind him a few seconds later, obviously struggling because of her injury but clearly trying to ignore it, and avoid being sent back home. Jane smiled as the kids ran back over to her.<br>"Honestly you two, you're so hyper today! Sensibility okay? Don't want Mummy being told off now do we?" They both shook their heads, before looking to each other and running off to see Lisbon in her office. Grace debated following them, but gave up in the end and sat down at her desk.  
>"Morning!" Jane stood up once things had settled down slightly, other than the chaos that was currently happening in the office but he ignored that, figuring Lisbon could do with waking up anyway.<br>"Is it still morning? Gosh…" Grace chuckled gently, but stopped when a pain shot through her. "How's it going then?" Looking around she could guess it hadn't gone too well, as nothing much had changed and there was paper everywhere.  
>Jane considered his answer for a moment. "It's not going… swimmingly. Galey's pretty much a dead end. It wasn't him, but he's hiding something so we're holding on to him, we have enough for that as you're well aware. I think secretly Lisbon's hoping you two can dig something up that we've not managed." He glanced back over at a still worn out Rigsby.<br>"Don't worry, he'll be fine. They do this to him a lot. I'll get to work on a search." Grace smiled and turned to her computer.

"Not just yet!" Lisbon called from her office door, looking slightly flustered and holding Hannah and Joe. "I need to fill you in fully. Meeting please? Jane… you can have some fun with these two." She pushed them gently in his direction and told them to have fun, whilst the other 3 agents joined her in her office.

"Patrick?" Hannah looked up to him after a couple of minutes of colouring. "Do you think mummy… Auntie Grace… loves Wayne?" Jane laughed, the kids had picked up on it faster than any of the others ever had.  
>"Now why would you think that eh?" He asked them, wanting to know that before he answered her question.<br>"Well, I saw them kiss, but they said it wasn't a big deal, but they keep being all funny and he is aaaaalways round ours." Jane nodded, and gestured for them to come over to him and sit on the couch. Once they were either side of him he leaned in and spoke quietly.  
>"Well, I think you're right. But you know what the problem is? They won't admit it! Now, I think we need a plan don't you?" The kids both nodded excitedly and listened in, letting him explain exactly what they were going to do.<p>

Lisbon came out of the office first, as she'd left them discussing ideas and she needed to talk to Jane about a few things before they set off on their work for the day.  
>"Hey, what you lot up to?" she walked over, wondering if the kids were okay.<br>"Patrick was telling us a story!" Joe lied perfectly well, Jane grinned and told them to go play.  
>"As long as you weren't scaring them… right, I need your opinion."<br>As they walked off to speak in the office, Jane turned around and warned the children to behave, and gave them a little wink.

The plan was go.


	11. Authors Note

Authors Note:

Okay, so I've had a couple of review on this recently and I feel really bad for having not continued with this. My record for finishing stories recently has been appalling and I send out a heartfelt apology to you all.

I am now looking back at this, trying to come up with some inspiration and staring longingly at the computer in hope of something. I really do want to finish this, I do love the story, I love my little universe and I love The Mentalist, I've just had serious writers block for a good few months now and it's pretty horrible.

As it goes, I have a few exams coming up so I can't absolutely promise to have something up soon, but I do promise to work on it as and when I can and get something up asap.

So please stick with me, I am trying… honest :/


	12. Chapter 11

**HEY GUYS! LOOK WHAT I DID! Okay, so it's just another chapter and I've kept you waiting well over a year… but look! **

**I truly am sorry for the delay though, I really hope you enjoy this chapter I have tried my best. I'm not going to palm you off with excuses, it's been a busy year but you don't need to know that.**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine. I had my 19****th**** birthday, and nothing!**

Grace leaned back once again, frustrated and tired. It felt like they had been on this case for years and yet it had only been a few days since her 'little incident' as they'd begun referring to it. It had been yet another long day trying to get one step closer to finding out what was going on here and they were clutching at straws. She looked back down at her laptop once more, feeling like there must be something she was missing and yet nothing was there. Whoever had done this was good, very good, and it was going to take some serious work to find a mistake or a small piece of evidence to lead them to the truth.

"It's late, stop staring at that and get to bed. You need to rest..." the voice almost made her jump but the hands that fell on her shoulder for a gentle massage made her relax as she leant back in to them. She sighed, shutting her eyes for a second or two while she allowed herself to zone out, but before long she was sat upright and back in front of the laptop.

"I can't. There must be something we're missing there just has to be... and whoever this is has not been caught, which means they're still out there and they could do this again. That boy was 7! Who would do this? I just cannot understand the mentality of it it's just..." only then did she realise the laptop had been shut and put on the shelf. Maybe Wayne was right, she was tired and this probably wasn't helping her to think and yet she could not stop thinking. She hadn't slept properly for a while now, not that she was going to let on but it was making her even more emotional about the whole situation. Every night she thought about what that boy's family were going through and every night she thought how she would feel if it had been Joe. What sleep she did manage was often plagued by nightmares of losing her family and she'd wake up scared and shaking and often debating going through to find Rigsby as she knew that would make her feel better... but then he'd know. All this was just rubbish, unfair, stupid... there were worse words but her mind simply wasn't up to that right now, especially when it finally tuned in to the voice speaking to her.

"Auntie Grace...? Are you okay...? Wayne why isn't she talking to me?" Grace could hear but for a moment she simply couldn't respond. Then it finally registered that Joe was the one talking to her and she managed to look over to him and put on a smile.

"Sorry sweetheart. I'm just tired, I didn't mean to scare you. What are you doing out of bed anyway?" She allowed him to sit on her lap while she spoke to him.  
>"I dreamt you weren't here anymore. It scared me." Grace tried not to react to this, but she did pull Joe a little closer. She knew both the children had been affected by her stabbing more than they were letting on and she wished there was more she could do about that. What hurt her most about the whole situation was how they were upset, not how it was affecting her - that wasn't important right now.<br>"I'm not going anywhere sweetheart. You know that right? I'm always going to be here for you even when you're all grown up because I love you and you're very important to me." Joe nodded, hugging in to her. The next few minutes continued like this, they were both getting comfort from this even if no words were spoken. Wayne had disappeared, Grace assumed to wash up the cups from earlier to give her some space, and so the two of them just sat together in silence. Until Joe broke it that was...

"Will Wayne always be here too? I like him being here. He makes you happy." Grace sighed, again, and looked at Joe. The conversations about her and Rigsby were becoming more and more frequent in the last few days, especially at work for some reason. Both children were at it, asking if he was staying and telling her what she already knew - that she loved him. But her answer was always the same.  
>"That's not important right now darling. Wayne will always care for you because you're special to him, but we're not talking about this right now." She couldn't deny it anymore, so she simply didn't admit it. That seemed to be the simplest course of action. Joe nodded, as usual. They never questioned it any further anymore, which seemed strange to Grace but eventually she put it down to what had happened. "Come on, let's get you to bed. We both need to sleep."<p>

The next morning they dropped the kids at school (as they'd finally fixed the problem) and headed in to work again. Wayne had noticed how tired Grace seemed each day and today seemed even worse. Something different was definitely bothering her, but she was so sensitive to questions that he had decided to leave it for now, at least until the case was over and he could be sure it wasn't simply that. When they walked in she simply sat down and worked through the stuff on her computer without speaking a word to anybody, but he simply shook his head at the others who sent him a look asking what was up. The atmosphere in the bull pen was getting worse by the day. Even Jane was frustrated at how little progress they had made and everyone was feeling it. So as the day pressed along like before - the odd trip to the scene or to interview somebody who might possible know something, it felt no better than it had been. But then something changed...

"We missed something." Grace piped up from her desk. She didn't look up, but Rigsby and Cho both looked over to her and observed how she was looking at the computer, as if she needed to be completely certain of what she had seen. Then she looked up. "Are you coming over here or what?" she asked, and they both immediately walked over to her desk. At first glance, neither man could see what she was on about, but then she zoomed in on the picture and they both realised. "I knew it, I knew we had missed something important. I knew something must be on here. How did we manage it?" They were all staring at one of the family photos they had taken from the family home and scanned in to look at. Grace had been looking at them all for days, and nobody questioned her motive. There was something behind the photo, something that must have been hidden there very, very cleverly. Somebody had hidden something behind the photo, within the mount that they hadn't taken off - rookie mistake.

"We had no reason to suspect anything was in there. These photos were hidden in a box in the attic. Looks like we need to get them out again..." Rigsby noted, and Cho wandered off to find the box. "Don't blame yourself," he added, noting the look on Grace's face, "We'd have probably all done the same." Of course that wasn't going to work, but it was worth a try, he was trying pretty much anything to make her feel better these days.

"Nice shout Van Pelt," Cho spoke as he walked back in to the bullpen, holding the photo mount and a small piece of paper. "You might have just found our killer."

**So there we go… my plan is for this to have a few more chapters yet, and those will slowly become more family orientated – we've still got the kids plan ;). I just wanted to get some case stuff out there because I've literally had this planned for so long it's mad! **

**I hope you enjoyed, please let me know! **

**xx**


	13. Chapter 12

**2 chapters in 2 days. What's going on?! I might have slightly a little bit changed my route with this, but it's simply a minor detour to add a bit of drama...**

**I'm sorry in advance.**

**Disclaimer: If you didn't know by now... I don't own the Mentalist *sigh***

Lisbon and Jane had rushed back when they had heard about the find, both full of praise for Grace, who simply shrugged it off still believing she should have spotted this earlier. They all saw the same thing, they all read the same thing and so they all knew what had to be done now. The note was clearly from the killer, it had been left there maybe out of guilt, a small level of conscience causing them to leave the smallest clue. Once they had all seen it they sent it down for analysis, ensuring that it was listed high priority. Of course they knew it would still be a good while until they got results but at least it was something. Unfortunately this meant waiting, and none of them were very good at that especially in this case where emotions were running high but nobody wanted to show that small lapse of strength.

Everybody had noted how Rigsby had moved to sit with Grace, to keep her calm, and Jane especially used this as a source of amusement during the waiting period. He was watching them, discreetly, just observing the interaction between the two and how Grace's mood changed almost immediately when he was there. She was still in a bad mood, she was very much distracted but it was a completely different kind of distraction to when he wasn't around. When Rigsby wasn't there, Grace was angry, she was angry with whoever had killed this little boy more than any of them - probably because her nephew was the same age, Jane noted, and she was scared of losing her family as she wondered if this could happen to anyone else. However when Rigsby was there that all disappeared, not completely but essentially that was not the problem anymore. In this situation she was scared of letting her emotions lose, scared of making her feelings for him transparent as if she thought something bad would happen if she did. Little clues would slip through, the odd smile at things that weren't funny, the hugs that they would share when they believed nobody was looking and of course that kiss that Hannah and Joe had told him about. It was simply all too obvious what was going on to him, and it made him quite sad in a way that she wouldn't let go now. Nobody cared anymore if they were to get together, even Lisbon had a fair idea of what was going on and Jane sensed she felt the same as the rest of them about it all.

Grace looked at the clock once more. They had been sat there for hours, it felt like days, and it could still be a lot longer before they had any results given how backed up the lab had been all day. She knew they'd all be going home soon, she knew it would soon come to a time where Lisbon would tell them all to leave and that they would be called in if and when they heard back. And they would all go home and nobody would sleep until they knew... they'd been here before. She looked at the clock again. The childminder would be leaving in an hour, she had to go home soon and it wasn't like she didn't want to go home, she was just scared of that phone call coming in the middle of the night when she had nobody to look after the kids and she wouldn't be able to get the bastard that did this, and see him go down for a long time. It felt selfish, but at the same time she felt the need to see this close, the need to have this gona from her life completely so she could get back to enjoying herself, albeit whilst ignoring her growing feelings for the man sat next to her.

He'd been talking for a while now, just little things, pointless things and she didn't really know what he was saying but that didn't matter. Simply the hum of his voice in the background of her thoughts stopped her from screaming in frustration. Only when Libson came over did she realise they were genuinely trying to speak to her so she tuned in slowly.  
>"...come on let's go. Grace?" Rigsby looked concerned, she wasn't entirely sure why.<p>

"He's right Grace. You two should go and be with the kids, they'll only worry again. I'll phone you if we get anything alright?" Lisbon looked concerned too. Had they been talking about her? Whatever was going on, she struggled to form any form of argument against this so she simply nodded and allowed herself to be led back to the car.

"I'm really concerned about her Jane, it's all so out of character. This case must really be getting inside her, maybe I shouldn't have had her out with us on the original call..." Lisbon was pacing the room. Jane had yet to look up from whatever it was she was reading, but he did speak.

"It's not the case. Well, it's not really the case. That's not helping, but it's not the problem." Lisbon looked over at him, confused. What was he on about? Of course the case was the problem. A 7 year old boy had been killed, the killer was still out there and Grace has an 8 year old nephew who she is essentially bringing up. Jane was smart, how could he not be seeing this? "You're doubting me Lisbon. But do you really not see it? The problem lies closer to home, the problem lies with her love life." Rigsby? Really? No way was he the problem here that didn't make any sense... but Jane answered her as if he could read her thoughts. Sometimes she wondered... "She's scared of allowing herself to love him. She's scared of losing her job, she's scared of losing her friends, she's scared of losing him and most importantly she's scared of hurting her children."

"But she shouldn't be scared anymore. I thought I'd made it clear that I wouldn't tell if they didn't. I'm pretty sure we won't have the same problem as last time, I've got more control over that now. They'd be safe, and they'd never lose their friends. Everyone is just fed up with them not being together now... and it's clear Hannah and Joe love Rigsby, she shouldn't be scared..." Lisbon sighed, she realised what she was saying to the man she felt that way about. Only recently had she realised but she was scared too. At least Rigsby loved Grace back of course...

"Relax dear Lisbon. I'm sorting it." That didn't sound good. What on earth was he planning? Once again, he read her mind. "The children and I have been thinking. We'll get them sorted... Come, sit, I'll fill you in." Jane smiled, and once she had sat down, he told her everything they had planned.

As soon as they arrived home Grace found herself jumped on by the kids, and she managed to put on a good front as they pulled her over to play with them. She smiled at Wayne, who nodded and went in to the kitchen to put the oven on once he had seen the childminder out. She spent the next hour with them, trying to make everything seem normal for them as they played and danced around. They were both happy, and she wanted it to stay that way. She didn't want them being upset because of her, it simply wasn't fair when they had been through so much in such short lives. Dinner was much the same as always, and she laughed and joked along with them even if she didn't feel up to eating much. When they cleared up, Wayne sent the kids upstairs to get ready for their baths and Grace started washing up.  
>"Leave that, I'll do it in a bit okay? You need to rest Grace you look shattered..." Why was he so nice? Why did he have to make this all so much harder.<p>

"I can do it. I'm not ill you know? Stop mothering me Wayne." She hated being so harsh, but that was the only way she could get through this recently, and it did bother her that he wouldn't let her do anything since the 'little incident'.  
>"You've been working hard, you've clearly not been sleeping. I'm just worried about you." No. He needed to stop worrying about her, he needed to stop doin geverything for her. She was not an invalid! Something in her snapped then, she wasn't sure why but it did. She turned around to look at him, she couldn't stop herself from reacting.<br>"I don't need you worrying about me! I don't need your pity! I don't need you hanging around here all the time Rigsby just stop it! LEAVE ME ALONE!" She watched his face change to shock, then upset, and then he just left. She didn't expect him to go without a fight but he did.

When he had left, she found herself sat on the kitchen floor. She didn't know how she had got there but she certainly felt the tears on her cheeks. Maybe she didn't need him to do those things, but she needed him...

**I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. *hides* **

**Next chapter will be up asap I promise. Cross my hearts (I've been watching doctor who...)**

**xx**


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